Mario Hoops 3 on 3

"Shoot the J!"

I don't know anything about sports myself, the most active thing I do is type on the keyboard. Accordingly, I usually stay away from sports titles. But this game caught my interest because of how good it looked graphically, and it's unique control scheme.

While the game certainly delivers on the points that originally interested me, I can't say it really offered much else.

As I said, the graphics are really very nice here. Everything moves at a good framerate, the characters are very detailed, and there is plenty of action going on in the environment. I can't say anything bad about the visual aspect of the title.

Similarly, while the control scheme in this game is quite unusual, I feel it works out very well. Essentially, you move your character with the directional pad, but control everything else with taps and swipes on the touch screen. To dribble the ball, you tap the screen in the direction you want to dribble, which also doubles as the method for keeping the ball from an opposing team member. To steal the ball, you swipe down when next to an opponent, and to shoot the ball, you swipe up. Passing the ball and throwing items is done by swiping across the screen in a direction relative to the way you want to pass or throw whatever object your character has. The controls are pretty simple to grasp, and there is a lengthy tutorial mode that will show you how to perform all of the required moves in the game.

Beyond that though, I can't say much else really works out.

The biggest problem is the AI for your teammates, or should I say, the lack thereof. If I didn't know better, I would think that this game was some sort of tech demo rather than a complete game. The other players on your team pretty much just run up and down the court, occasionally getting into place for you to pass the ball to them. In all the matches I have played so far, I have never seen anyone else on my team make a shot, or even so much as pick up the ball as it rolled past them. Essentially, you are the only person on your team that will be doing anything.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the AI on the other side of the court isn't much better. As I said earlier, I have little previous experience with sports games, but in my first match I managed to double the score the opposing team had. While the difficulty ramps up a bit the farther you get in the game, it is always fairly easy. This can make things pretty repetitive, as you slam dunk the ball over and over again without any defense on the other team's part.

The multiplayer mode somewhat makes up for the lack of difficulty seen in the single player game, but even that is not as developed as it could have been. It isn't playable online, which at this point in the DS's life is almost unacceptable for a big name title, and it doesn't allow for a whole lot of options. Even still, it is fairly entertaining, and adds considerably to the replay value of the total product.

Essentially, this is a mediocre sports game wrapped up in a technically impressive shell. All the high detail character models in the world can't make a game any less boring, and sadly that ends up being the case here. While there is almost enough content here to make up for the brain damaged AI; the overall effect is, in a word, underwhelming.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/06